My first night out of the year and my first proper night out since November last year!! With that passage of time I was amazed that I could remember anything of the night sky.
What a night though... I arrived at Bragan, on my own, to beautiful skies with a light to strong breeze - thankfully that broke and calmed as the night went on.
My brother and a friend of his arrived just as I was getting the scope set up so once I did I gave a little night sky tour with the laser pointer and showed a few jewels of the sky in the scope. Before too long the chairman arrived. After some good conversation and hot drink it wasn't long until we were stuck in and making the most of this rare kind of night. Neither of us really knew how good the night actually was until we started looking at some of the rare or exotic objects, that's when the "WOW's" started to become a regular sound.
We finished the night both very happy and ecstatic to have bagged a few rare treats and to see the astonishing sights we did.
If we get a night like this for Sunday's first Messier Marathon attempt we are all in for another special night.
Equipment = Skywatcher 14"
Location = Bragan
Seeing = 3
Trans = 4
Start Time = 21:45
NGC 4565 - A very fine view of - possibly - the most impressive edge on galaxy in the whole northern sky. Really strong structure and great contrast between the dust lanes and galactic bulge. A cracking good start.
NGC 4244 - Really nice. Not as bight as I may have seen it in past observations but still good brightness on this occasion . Details were about average but still a great feeling to see this again.
M104 - One of the few galaxies that makes my heart race with excitement upon knowing that I can observe it again. I remember my best ever view of this at Carren Rock a few years ago through my 10" Orion and how photographic it looked. It didn't live up to that night but it was still really good. I observed it for a good ten minutes, at least, and all those details really came out. The dust lane so obvious and breathtaking in details and the way it contrasted against the delicate hue of the galactic bulge was really a beautiful sight.
NGC 4038/39 - Corvus was so prominent in the south sky, so I stood still to take the whole constellation in and then it dawned on me that I've never spend any time observing anything there so I went to the star maps only to see that it was home to the Antennae galaxies. It didn't take me long to get the scope onto them.
They were very faint at first but averted vision revealed what looked like two fried eggs that had touched when cracked onto a hot pan and merged to be cooked as one big irregular looking one. There was next to no detail but I could pick out some variations of light an dark. Now that I look at some images of them, online, I can tell that I had a very good observation of them indeed, especially when they are so low down in our sky.
There was also another galaxy lurking at the edge of the FOV which I believe to be NGC 4027.
NGC 4261 - Never knew of this PN at all so once I saw it on the map curiosity got the better of me. I was really surprised by how impressive it looked. The nebula itself reminded me of a miniature version of the Rosetta. The central star is so bright with AV. I highly recommend this PN observers.
M68 - An excellent view considering how low down it is. Stars were resolving quite well.
Algorab - A new double to add to my list and quite a nice one. Bight and a large companion, easy to split.
Upsilon Virgo - A really lovely double with a small companion, making for a pleasing contrast of size.
M101 - I wasn't expecting to see what I did when slewing the scope to this joker. Normally I just look at it for a joke to see how disappointing it is but I couldn't believe my eyes for a moment. The detail and brightness was as crisp and sharp as when observing this through the 20" Obsession at the Burren Star Party last September - so I could see the supernova.
I could see three spiral arms very well but the largest of the three stood out the best. There was fantastic detail in and around the core and I could even make out dark dust lanes between and around the bright regions of the spiral arms. Having some of the Milky Way stars appear to shine from with in M101 really added to the delight of it all. I won't forget this one, or make a joke of this galaxy again.
M51 - Sensational!! Not the greatest amount of detail I've seen but the brightness of it and the impressive structure of the core and spiral arms was almost photographic. So good...
NGC 4631 - I was so happy to see this again. One of my favourite galaxies and the shape was really strong, with its satellite galaxy very easily seen.
NGC 4656 - This really impressed. The striking 'J' shape - giving the look of the hockey stick - was so obvious and the detail in the irregular galaxy was really good. I could see the star forming regions as brighter areas and also notice the gaps around the edges.
M64 - Very impressive, probably the best I've ever seen this I dare say. The dark feature in the core was really prominent. I spent some time with this and enjoyed it a lot.
M10 - Fantastic, stunning mass of stars.
M12 - Every bit as good as M10
M14 - Shockingly good view when it's such a low object. Stars resolved so nicely
Delta Serpentis - Another new double star for me and it is very nice indeed.
M5 - One of the true treasures of the night sky. I am still lost for words to try and say how incredible this globular is. Not only is this, with out a doubt, the most stunning, breathtaking, mind blowing globular cluster to look at but easily one my favourites of the entire sky now. The view I was getting, the incredible amount of detail, the fact that I could have counted every single star they were that well resolved. No photographic image of any telescope could come close to the real view at the eye piece. Not only was this the biggest "WOW" object of the night it's one of the best observations in all of my observing life.
NGC 6543 - The best I've ever seen the cats eye. The brightness was dazzling and the strong green colour was wonderful. Spending some time with this and some AV some knotted features were revealed to me as well as some hints to the arcing loops of gas you so famously see in the Hubble images.
M4 - What a way to end a night. I've seen this twice before but nothing more than an undefined smudge. Not this time though. It was really nicely resolved with noticeable differences of star meningitides. Such a memorable cluster and my best view of it yet, and to see it so early in the year too!!
I know I forgot to make not of a few objects, a lot of them double stars and a few other M objects but with so many memorable observations in one night my head is still spinning with all the amazing objects that I allowed to be burned into the retina of my eye, so I have no regrets in missing to write down a few things.
Finish Time = 04:14
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